Ask any football supporter who the greatest referee of all-time was and many of them, probably the vast majority of them, will plump for the legendary Italian match official Pierluigi Collina.
It is over 20 years now since the bald-headed, occasionally wild-eyed, utterly brilliant Collina last took charge of a competitive fixture.
Yet, for many knowledgeable observers the man who was assigned the Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Manchester United in 1999 by UEFA and the World Cup final between Brazil and Germany in 2002 by FIFA remains without equal.
Fans in this country, who have not exactly made a secret of their unhappiness with the standard of officiating in this country in the past few weeks following a series of controversies, openly long for a Scottish referee who exudes the same quiet authority, who refuses to accept any backchat from petulant players, who commands the same respect, who allows games to flow without needless interruptions.
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So much so, in fact, that there have been renewed calls from some quarters for foreign whistlers to be drafted in to oversee big Premier Sports Cup, Scottish Gas Scottish Cup and William Hill Premiership matches in the future.
That ludicrous suggestion, though, is not the solution to the current discontent in the stands.
For Collina, as your correspondent discovered when he attended a Serie B match between Napoli and Empoli which “The Sherrif” was marshalling back in 2002, experienced exactly the same criticism in his homeland which the likes of John Beaton, Don Robertson and Nick Walsh are subjected to in theirs.
The second tier league match I went to was not played in the Stadio San Paolo in Naples but at the Stadio Ciro Vigorito in Benevento about an hour’s drive away. That was due to a punishment which had been meted out following an outbreak of crowd trouble and violence at the end of the Neapolitans’ previous campaign.
The Camorra, the notorious mafia organisation whose members are heavily integrated into local ultras’ groups, had been unhappy with the stewardship of the club by the hierarchy. So they detonated a small bomb in the garden of president Corrado Ferlaino to show their displeasure. Blow Up The Board!
It is fair to say that security at the Empoli match had been ramped up somewhat by the authorities. Dozens of Kevlar-wearing riot police stood brandishing machine guns and holding back rather fearsome looking Alsatian dogs as fans filed through a solitary turnstile Indian file that evening.
Once inside the ground, there were high metal fences with razor wire strung across the top of them at the front of each stand and deep moats around the pitch to prevent members of the crowd from invading the playing surface. Sorry if that gives the SFA and SPFL any ideas after recent events.
But did these excessive measures protect Collina and the players? Not really. Every decision which the referee awarded against the hosts during the course of the 90 minutes was met with outraged roars by their supporters and was followed by dozens of missiles, bottles, rocks, lighters, coins, whatever onlookers had to hand, being launched in his direction.
At one stage in proceedings, he spent a minute or so kicking the debris off the grass with a linesman so that a corner kick could be taken. He and his assistants were booed and jeered back into their dressing room by the baying mob after he had blown the final whistle and brought an unremarkable 0-0 draw to its conclusion. Nice day at the office dear?
Neil Lennon, the Dunfermline manager whose side will take on Celtic in the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup final at Hampden this afternoon, understands just how nonsensical an idea bringing in overseas referees is from his time in the dugout at Omonia Nicosia in Cyprus.
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At his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Lennon recounted how Marco Di Bello was flown over to the Mediterranean island from Italy to maintain order the Cypriot Cup final his side played against Ethnikos Achna back in 2022.
The encounter quickly descended into absolute farce and Lennon, who can be a combustible character at the best of times, finally cracked at the end of extra-time. He was red carded for sarcastically applauding the man-in-the-middle. Fortunately for him, his men would go on to prevail on penalties.
There is no doubt that officiating needs to get better on these shores. SFA head of refereeing operations Willie Collum has had to offer far too many apologies and admit to far too many errors during the past nine months or so than is healthy for him or the national game.
But parachuting in replacements from other countries – as happened during the referees’ strike in 2010 - is not the answer for a number of different reasons. Firstly, it is impractical. Secondly, it will cost far too much money. Thirdly, they will still make rulings and mistakes which incur the wrath of players, managers and supporters.
Showing Beaton, Robertson, Walsh and their colleagues a little respect and understanding, even after they have had an absolute howler, would be a good place to start attempts to improve standards.
The treatment they have suffered in recent days has gone way beyond what is acceptable. If a family require police protection at their home then a line has been crossed.
The thinly-veiled threat of strike action that was contained in the statement issued by the Scottish Senior Football Referees’ Association yesterday should set alarm bells ringing in boardrooms, dressing rooms and supporters’ buses around the country.
The professional game, as refereeing Godfather Pierluigi Collina would readily tell you as he fixed you with an icy glare, cannot survive without match officials.
